Meanwhile a little further south the 12th Division was equally successful. During the whole of the 19th, battalion after battalion of tanks, R.E. equipment, ambulances and so on had been coming up to the front and, in accordance with Operation Orders, had been doing so in absolute silence. The scheme for the 20th had included five objectives. The 37th Brigade was assembled on the right of the 36th and it was to go forward on a two-company frontage only. The two companies of the 7th East Surrey were given the task of seizing the first objective, and the remainder of this battalion was to take the second. The third and fourth objectives were allotted to two companies each of the 6th Buffs and the Royal West Kents had the fifth.
The Surreys were quite successful; then the Buffs moved forward in artillery formation and, crossing the first lines of defence, moved on with marked success, sending back numerous prisoners and attacking the Hindenburg Line. There took place some fierce hand-to-hand fighting and a systematic “mopping up” of dug-outs, but everything went like clockwork and by the afternoon the battalion headquarters was in Pam-Pam Farm with three companies holding Lateau Wood and B Company at Bonavis, though the progress had been delayed somewhat by machine-gun fire from the two named farms, and the enemy had been difficult to drive from Lateau Wood. At 3.45 p.m. the West Kent reported to brigade headquarters that they were in touch with the Buffs and that no enemy was in sight. The battalion casualties for the 20th were 5 officers wounded and 105 other ranks killed, wounded or missing, mostly only wounded.
On the 21st the positions occupied were consolidated. Much movement of lorries was noticed on this day behind the enemy’s lines. Strong patrols, however, from the regiment covered the bridges over the canal. It became apparent on the 23rd that the German artillery had been considerably reinforced, as the hostile shelling very perceptibly increased in volume. On this date Captain A. F. Worster of the 1st Battalion died of wounds. He had been twelve months with the battalion and was greatly respected and universally loved. He had twice won the M.C.
On the 26th both battalions were relieved and withdrawn, the 1st into the Hindenburg Line as divisional reserve, and the 6th into support, though it sent up strong working parties to labour on the communication and front trenches for the West Kent Regiment, as a counter-attack on the part of the enemy now seemed imminent, he having evidently been greatly reinforced. On this date Lt.-Colonel Green left the 1st Battalion to assume command of a brigade.
On the 30th November a great German counter-attack was launched. Being in divisional reserve, the 1st Battalion did not on the first day suffer much from the shock, though six men were wounded; but the following morning it reinforced the troops who were now holding the line round Gonnelieu and La Vacquerie, where the enemy had broken through the previous day. Here Major B. L. Strauss, who was commanding, was killed, as were seven of his men, another dying of his wounds. Captain Allen, the adjutant, was wounded but continued for a while to command the battalion which duty had devolved on him. Captain Tibbles, R.A.M.C., Lieut. Blake, 2nd Lieuts. Clark, Fisher and Owen, C.S.M. Vincer and forty-five others were also injured.
In the evening Captain Pill, R.A.M.C., attached to the Bedfords, took over medical charge, Allen retired to the dressing station, Major Hardy, of the York and Lancasters, assumed temporary command and the Buffs were withdrawn again into divisional reserve to go up once more in the night of the 3rd to take up a defensive flank on Highland Ridge, as the enemy had broken through near Marcoing that morning. One company of R.E. and the Brigade Pioneer Company were attached for aid on Highland Ridge.
On the 5th December five men were killed and sixteen wounded, one of whom died the following day, on which date a new doctor, Lieut. McVey, relieved Captain Pill. Three were killed on the 7th and Lieut. L. F. Clark died of his hurts; two of the men were lost in the same way on the 8th. On this latter date the Buffs were relieved from the Ridge and moved back into trenches in rear of the main Hindenburg system. On the night of the 9th they moved further back still and on the 11th were taken twenty miles westward to Courcelles to refit, and Lt.-Colonel Power, who had commanded the 2nd Battalion at Ypres when Colonel Geddes was killed, was appointed commanding officer.
CAMBRAI
The 6th Battalion suffered severely on the 30th November, but showed that the men were made of magnificent fighting material. The enemy’s offensive was most successful on the sector which was on the right flank of the battalion. Here he penetrated right through to the rear, and the first news the men in the line had of this success was that their own brigade headquarters was being attacked behind them. This attempt, however, was beaten off by the staff, the orderlies and the signallers, though the transport, which was bringing up water and supplies, was captured. This hostile movement of course exposed the Buffs’ flank. Dense German masses were successful on the other flank also, but a ray of light in the gloom was occasioned by a very successful counter-attack made by the Buffs on Pam-Pam Farm, which had fallen. This place was recaptured and the enemy’s advance in this region held up for three hours. Overwhelming masses, however, at last proved impossible to withstand and the small garrison withdrew fighting from shell hole to shell hole. The enemy was now on front, flanks and even in rear, and the struggle was hand-to-hand, obstinate and desperate. It was a case of the remnants of a fighting unit cutting its way back through all obstacles to regain a line that was forming in rear. This was finally effected and the line straightened out, but, as may be supposed, it was a bloody affair and our casualties numbered 14 officers and 317 other ranks, Major C. F. Cattley, M.C., being amongst the killed. The new position taken up was successfully held against all attacks, though it formed a very acute angle, as the divisions on the right and left had fallen back, leaving, of course, a greatly exposed salient. The line was held, however, until relief came next day, when the battalion moved back to the old British front, which was heavily gassed by means of shells.